


When Love is Left

by smilelaughread



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 03:09:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4590771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilelaughread/pseuds/smilelaughread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily and James have a decision to make: can they start a family in wartime?</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Love is Left

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not, unfortunately enough, own any of the characters in the following piece of fiction. Boo.

Lily and James spent a lot of their time thinking about starting their family. In contrast, they only spoke very occasionally and very softly about the sensitive topic. Lily cursed Petunia, for her happy news had forced the topic into their lives. They handled it as though it were a hot coal. Neither James nor Lily could touch it without feeling their hearts burn.

They had enough to worry about - a million problems already piled onto their shoulders.

A war. A madman.

In a world that seemed to have a future more unstable than ever before, was it possible that they could think of bringing forth new life?

James, surprisingly, disagreed with Lily. He wanted to defy the odds. When the days were probably numbered for any one of them, he had to jump on every opportunity to live.

Lily wanted security and safety.

Through the hustle and bustle, the long nights when they were apart, the few where they could fall asleep in each other's embraces, the topic was broached few times. Still, Lily saw when his eyes unfocused as they sat at the table for dinner, knew that he was imagining a third member of the family sharing their conversation.

She understood his desire, if in a slightly different way.

She wanted to be close, once again, to youth and innocence. She'd been witness to too many terrible things since her own childhood. Incessantly, the Daily Prophet brought news that was more sickening with each passing day.

Lily cancelled the subscription.

It felt like eons that she agonized, so much so that she almost expected grey hairs every time she looked in the mirror, rehashing her thoughts a million times over, changing her mind innumerable times. James, with his quiet joking and serious eyes, seemed to feel the same fatigue as Lily.

That all changed one night when James came back from a meeting with wild energy coursing through him, and Lily made the choice that she knew had been decided in the back of her mind for days. With youth and freedom far from their fingertips, what could she do but trace patterns into James' skin and hope for him to whisper the answers to her questions into her ear?

Their cries were laced with abandon and flung into the cool night air.

In spite of everything, a week later, when she discovered that she was carrying their baby, it was the happiest moment of her life. It was a promise of a future. Hope.


End file.
